The paper analyses the reasons for poor performance of private research institutes in Bulgaria. In this regard the Institutional Economics methods are used. A connection between smart growth policy goals and Bulgarian membership in EU is made. The gaps in the institutional environment are...

We compare four methodologies to estimate the global distribution of income and find that many methods work well, but the method based on two-parameter distributions is more accurate than other methods. This method is simpler, easier to implement and relies on a more internationally-comparable...

Economists, and also economic research institutes, differ in their attitudes towards desirability of economic policies. The policy positions taken can often be determined by ideology. We examine economic policy positions by investigating minority votes in the Joint Economic Forecast of German...

An increasing number of countries are introducing gender quotas in scientific committees. We analyze how a larger presence of female evaluators affects committee decision-making using information on 100,000 applications to associate and full professorships in all academic disciplines in two...

Spatial proximity facilitates transfer of knowledge and technology between research institutes or universities (RIU) and firms. Against this background the location of research institutions and universities is often seen as an instrument of regional policy to promote knowledge flows and R&D...

"With an estimated 1830 think tanks stretched across its 50 states and close to 400 public policy institutes in Washington, D.C. alone, the United States possesses the largest concentration of think tanks on the globe. But despite being home to several prominent think tanks such as the Brookings...

This paper is a contribution to the methodological and technical discussion of social research infrastructure. The main question is how to store and manage data in a way that meets the increasing demand for secondary data analysis in both quantitative and qualitative social science research. The...